This week, we saw the official start of the 2024-2025 Champions League season under a new format. The Champions League has recently made several changes to its format, such as scrapping the away goals rule. Under this new format, another significant change is debuting this season. Instead of the traditional group format where the top two teams move on to the knockout stages, now all the teams play in a league system where each team plays eight games. With the competition now including 36 teams, let’s look at the top games from opening match week.
Manchester City 0-0 Inter Milan
Opening week saw us get a rematch of the 2023 Champion League final with Manchester City vs Inter Milan, with the two sides needing help to get on the score sheet on Wednesday. Manchester City had most of the possession, having the ball for 59% of the match. Still, Manchester City star striker Erling Haaland found it challenging to get past Inter Milan defenders that night. Both teams had opportunities to take all three points, and both sides started the Champion League campaign with a draw.
Monaco 2-1 Barcelona
The biggest surprise from this opening week was Monaco upsetting Barcelona. Barcelona, heading into this game, was putting up a string of excellent results to start the La Liga campaign, having won all five in a row before being beaten by Monaco, who ironically enough, was the last team to beat Barcelona having beaten the team in the preseason just before the season started. Barcelona was still seen as the favorite and was looking to settle in the game until defender, Erik Garcia was forced to pull down a Monaco player and received a red card after receiving a bad pass from goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen. Monaco played nearly 80 minutes with an extra man allowing them to have an 18-4 total shots advantage which saw them take all three points in front of their supporters in Louis ll Stadium.
Liverpool 3-1 AC Milan
Liverpool and AC Milan are two of the biggest clubs in their respective countries and also have a long history with each other in the Champions League having played each other in two finals with each club winning one. USMNT captain Christian Pulisic opened up the scoring for the Italian giants putting them up 1-0 three minutes into the game but from there, it was all Liverpool. Liverpool won the match comfortably thanks to first-half goals from defenders Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konaté, who gave Liverpool the 2-1 lead at the half. Another goal from winger Dominik Szoboszlai added another goal in the second half to Liverpool the 3-1 win and all three points to start their campaign strong.
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